A man has claimed that the Bruce Weber photos being sold at auction were personal mementos that were allegedly “stolen” from his storage facility after it flooded.
Designer Victor Alfaro is trying to stop the sale of photographs that were taken by and given to him by Bruce Weber by New York-based auction house Roland Auctions, according to a report by WWD. Alfaro is looking to shelve the scheduled auction on May 31, accusing the photos of being “stolen property.”
Alfaro says that “never in a million years” did he expect that his personal collection of photographs would be sold or garner interest at auction. The Miami-based designer also alleges that some of these photos that have been attributed to Weber by Roland Auctions, were actually shot by American photographer Francesco Scavullo and the late Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld.
Roland Auctions is selling a collection of 40–50 original photographs by Weber that were reportedly found by an anonymous collector and described as being “hidden to the public for years” by Art Daily. Many of the images were signed and numbered by the photographer and inscribed with the message: “To Victor, Love Bruce.”
The standout lot of the auction is a striking boxed set titled The Twins from Madrid, black-and-white images captured by Weber of Juan and Cesar Hortoneda, twin models from Spain.
According to WWD, Alfaro says he was informed by a storage facility in Newark, N.J., a few months ago that the unit he had been using experienced a flood.
“They said they had to open the units to see what the damage was, which was very bizarre,” Alfaro tells the outlet. He added that he was told everything had to be removed from the unit.
“We got rid of a lot of wet clothes and other stuff,” the designer says. “But what was taken out and by who? I don’t even know.”
The items that could be saved were later moved to a storage facility in the Bronx, N.Y., and one of Alfaro’s assistants went with the movers. Alfaro said the Newark unit had been left untouched for seven years, and he wasn’t entirely sure what was inside — though some pieces of furniture he expected to find were missing.
“I don’t know how this happened. It could have been the employees from the storage unit,” Alfaro alleges.
Last week, a spokesperson for Roland Auctions stated that personal items, including photographs, had been discovered in an abandoned New Jersey storage unit that previously belonged to Alfaro. A Long Island-based collector, whose identity is not being shared publicly, is behind the sale, according to the spokesperson.
Bill Roland, co-owner of Roland Auctions, said the consignor — a person he knows and trusts — bought the contents of the unit through an online auction and then went to the storage facility in New Jersey to collect them.
“He has all of the receipts, the documentation that is necessary, and videotape that he took when he opened the storage unit. He thought it hadn’t been opened in years, because there was five inches of dust over the padlocks,” Roland tells WWD. “When he got inside, there were a lot of boxes with Victor Alfaro’s name and a barcode. When he purchased the contents, the paperwork had ‘formerly belonging to Victor Alfaro.’”
While Alfaro says his attorney would be sending a cease-and-desist letter, some of the photographs from the sale’s nearly 50 lots still appear to be online. Roland Auctions appears to have amended the online descriptions of some of the images, and a portrait of Alfaro that was previously attributed to Weber now seems to have been attributed to Scavullo.
WWD reports that Weber declined to comment through a spokesperson.Weber was accused of sexual assault by several models, and has been the subject of three lawsuits. In 2021, Weber and six male models settled their legal battles over alleged sexual misconduct out of court.
Image credits: All photos via Roland Auctions.
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